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September 8, 2014

Delays force Navy to drop demand for foreign submarines

Frustrated
with seven years of debilitating delay in even kicking off the process
to select a foreign collaborator to help make new-generation stealth
submarines, the Navy has junked its long-standing demand for getting two
of the six such vessels directly from aboard.

Defence ministry
sources said Navy has now agreed that all the six new submarines, armed
with both land-attack missile capabilities and air-independent
propulsion for greater underwater endurance, will be constructed in
India with foreign collaboration under 'Project-75-India'.

The
major decision dovetails into the Modi government's thrust on building a
strong indigenous defence-industrial base with stepped-up private
sector participation. The Arun Jaitley-led defence acquisitions council
last month, for instance, scrapped the long-pending import of 197 light
utility helicopters, holding they would be made here under the 'Buy and
Make Indian' category to encourage the domestic private industry.

The approved P-75I plan till now was that the first two submarines would be imported to save
time, given the country's rapidly-ageing and depleting underwater
combat arm, with the next three being constructed at Mazagon Docks
(Mumbai) and one at Hindustan Shipyard (Visakhapatnam) with technology
transfer from the foreign company eventually selected.But
this will change now. With the Rs 23,562 crore construction of six
French Scorpene submarines under Project-75 running four years behind
schedule at MDL, the defence establishment could well turn to a private
shipyard for execution of P-75I.

Moreover, the long delay in
launching P-75I, which was granted "acceptance of necessity" way back in
November 2007, will lead to some cost escalation from the initial
estimate of around Rs 50,000 crore.

The import of the first two
submarines and the selection of the Indian shipyard to make the other
four has for long been the bone of contention, with the file still being
tossed between the finance and defence ministries. This despite India
being down to just 13 ageing diesel-electric submarines, with only half
of them operational at present.

Once the global tender or RFP
(request for proposal) for P-75I is issued, it will take at least three
years to first select the foreign collaborator and then finalize the
project with it. It will thereafter take another seven to eight years
for the first submarine to roll out.

The Krishnamurthy panel,
one of the three committees which examined the matter, had held that MDL
among the defence shipyards had the "capability" to take on P-75I,
while L&T was the only private one to have the "potential" for it.
But that was some years ago. The RFP, when it is issued, will go to
entities like DCNS (France), HDW (Germany), Navantia (Spain) and
Rosoboronexport (Russia), among others, who will have to tie up with an
Indian shipyard for the project.

The Navy, meanwhile, is
keeping its fingers crossed that there are no more delays in the
Scorpene project, under which the first submarine will now be inducted
in September 2016, with the other five following at 9-10 months
intervals each.Last
month, the defence ministry also approved the Rs 4,800 crore mid-life
upgrade and life-extension of four Kilo or Sindhughosh-class (Russian)
submarines and two HDW or Shishumar-class (German) ones. While two of
the Kilo-class submarines will be upgraded in Russia, the other two will
follow suit at Mumbai naval dockyard. The two HDW submarines, in turn,
will be upgraded at MDL with the German company's help. - Times of india